


Between Lines and Spaces

by Oparu



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-21
Updated: 2017-10-21
Packaged: 2019-01-20 20:28:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12441084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oparu/pseuds/Oparu
Summary: The Queens of Darkness are cursed in Hyperion Heights, and Mal the quiet accountant has a crush on Roni the bartender that's never going to go anywhere.Never.





	Between Lines and Spaces

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ariestess](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ariestess/gifts).



> Fluffy and kind of dreamy. I didn't give Ursula, Cruella or Mal cursed names because I idn't want to ruin anyone else's headcanons. 
> 
> And somehow Cruella is alive.

"Someone has more than a passing infatuation with the bartender," Cruella teased, tracing her fingers around the rim of her gin and tonic.

The tonic was basically an afterthought. It was gin. 

Mal tried (and failed) to hide her blush. Roni was so beautiful and confident. It was a crush, and it meant nothing. They'd been spending more time in the bar in the wake of the community garden taking off and Roni was always such a good host. Who knew Hyperion Heights could be a community? They'd all lived here, as long as any of them could remember, drifting in after grad school (Ursula), after divorce (Cruella), after Mal couldn't find herself. They came here and lived in old apartments with creaky windows and ancient radiators.

The years since any of them had arrived blurred. They'd met sometime, become friends, become comfortable, and now they just were. Ursula arrived at Mal's after music lessons finished for the day, Cruella dropped by when she'd found some amazing jacket actually made of mink. Mal hated the idea of wearing the fur of a creature, she was vegetarian, but she tried to be supportive. Cruella was so much more fun when she was happy about something. 

"She's single," Ursula prompted, finishing her wine. "Never see her with anyone."

"That doesn't mean she's single." Cruella plucked her lime from her drink and sucked on it before dropped it back. "Perhaps she's just selective."

"She's so single," Ursula insisted. "I can tell."

"You can tell, can you darling?" Cruella raised an eyebrow and leaned in. They teased each other a little more before it turned to kissing and Mal watched a moment before she pulled her gaze away. 

The crowd was happy tonight, drinking and laughing. Sometimes Roni's got a little maudlin, like any working class neighbourhood when rent was due, but today was warm.

Comfortable. 

Bright, like Roni's smile. 

Mal finished her own wine and grabbed her jacket. Ursula and Cruella would find their own way home. 

She walked through the garden, past the hyacinths just starting to bloom. Kneeling down, she touched the flowers, marvelling at how well they'd come up this spring. Perhaps it was a year for hope after all. 

The bar was closed Mondays, just wasn't Roni's on her day off, and Tuesday sometimes had Henry fill in as the new bartender so Roni could actually have a weekend. He was sweet, listened well, like he had the ear of a writer. That was the story anyway, Henry Mills had written a book. Mal ordered her copy from the used bookstore, and it had taken a few days for even the talented bookshop owner to track it down, but now she had it. 

She's finished her accounts for the day. Most of the local businesses had simple enough taxes and payroll, made just enough most weeks to stay aloft for another few months. Just like everyone was usually close enough on their rent. The whole community survived, some weeks better, some worse. 

The sun sets orange and pink between the buildings all around and Mal sits with her copy of  _ Once Upon a Time.  _ Her coffee goes cold somewhere between the third and fourth chapter but she drinks it anyway, pulling her jacket a little tighter while the child called Henry navigates the mixed world of fairy tales and a tiny town in Maine. His two mothers fight for him, and his well being, and at the end of chapter six, one of them slays a dragon. 

Cruella's right. She's too soft. Dragons aren't real, and they're not like the elephants Mal can't stop worrying about of the horses and cows she always wants to protect. Dragons are not real. 

Yet her chest is tight and the cold coffee does nothing to soothe it. She looks up at the darkening sky, sunset fading, streetlights coming on yellow and blue-white. In the old neighbourhoods, they never match. She blinks, trying to dry her eyes. It's just a story. There's no lonely little boy at odds with his mother, no lost little girl who doesn't know her mother is right there. 

Children always tug at her. She never had one, never really had the opportunity, but their struggles cut deep. No one loved this Emma Swan, and she never felt like she was wanted. 

All children should be wanted. 

Dammit. She wipes her eyes with her scarf. Maybe that's all she can read today. Wrapping her arms around her chest, she sits there net to the book, trying not to let her thoughts run away with dead dragons and lost little boy and girls who think no one loves them. 

"Payroll can't be that bad, I only have one employee." 

Mal looks up in surprise. "What?"

Roni drops herself on the bench beside her. "Usually payroll doesn't make you tear up."

"The dragon dies."

Roni raises her eyebrows. "Save the dragons t-shirts next week?"

"Do they make them?"

Digging in her pocket, Roni hands over a cocktail napkin. "Here, it's better than your scarf."

"I'm an idiot."

"Maybe you just have a big heart." 

"Too big."

"I don't think so." 

Dabbing her eyes with the napkin, Mal shakes her head at the sky. "He's so alone."

"Henry, little Henry? I know, I read it."

"You did?"

"Just because I run a bar doesn't mean I'm not a fan of literature."

"I wasn't--"

"I know, I know. You're fun to tease." Roni's eyes glow like the sunset. 

"Me?"

"You're so literal." 

Mal laughs. "I'm an accountant, I believe that fits the stereotype." 

"Spreadsheets and no sense of humor."

"That's me."

Roni touches her shoulder, making their eyes meet again. "No, it's not." 

Shivering for a thousand reasons that have nothing to do with cold coffee or the sun disappearing, Mal leans a little closer. "You're the people person." 

"Not all people."

"Oh?"

"Just the ones I find interesting."

Mal wants to protest that there is nothing interesting about her, but Roni touches her chin, lifts her eyes. 

"You can't tell me you're not interesting, Mal. I know better." Roni's fingers are so warm against her chin, and her eyes so dark.

She shouldn't be this lost. 

And yet...

Roni kisses her, pressing their lips together, warm and gentle. 

Lost.

"Really interesting," Roni whispers in her ear. 

Pulling her closer, Mal finds a courage she's never had and kisses Roni back, deeper, slower. 

So very lost.


End file.
